CARTY Family History

Surprisingly this early Irish surname is not a shortened form of the more familiar MacCarthy, although the original meaning is the same. Its origins are "O'Carthaigh", from the early Gaelic "Carthach", translating as "loving" or probably, "the loving one", an unusual descriptive nickname for clans known more for their warlike, than their "loving" tendencies! The Carty clan originates principally in the County of Wexford, where it is also recorded in the spelling of Carthy. Many Cartys left Ireland in the wake of the Great Famine (1846 - 1848), the earliest recorded being Bernard, his wife, Bridget, his son, Thomas, and his mother, Mary, who sailed on the "Fredonia" of Liverpool, in April 1846, bound for New York.